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Thursday, November 16, 2006

On Reliability

When life get really crazy, and there are days when you don't see if the sun ever comes out, it's nice to know that there are still things you can count on. Like last night, the regular monthly knit night at Barnes & Noble. Jen and I were joined by Amanda, a newcomer to our group, who I don't think quite believed us about 40 guy. We told her about his normal routine, and how we'd seen him every knit night for the past six-ish months, but she still looked dubious.

And then, promply at 8:20 p.m. EST, guess who made an appearance:

Although Jenn was not there to be inappropriate, Jen and I whipped out our cameras the minute he disappeared to find his graphic novel for the evening and gathered more photographic evidence. (She took a rather bad picture of me with the 40 in the background, which I'm really hoping doesn't show up on her blog. If it does, at least you've been warned.)

Another reliable thing that's always comforting? The fact that 100% wool will always felt. Here are the slippers before felting (I remembered the ruler this time!) ...

And after ...Pattern: Loosely based on Fuzzyfeet (winter '02 Knitty)Yarn: Cascade 220, color 9451, used one skein for each slipper and ended up with at least 1/3 of each leftNeedles: US 8 dpnsMods: Many. I really only followed two parts of the pattern: 1) I knit the cuff to be three inches long, as called for, and 2) I knit the foot and toe to be the recommended 1.3 times the length of the recipient's foot.

Thank goodness for what felting does. When I was in the middle of kitchenering the second toe, a knot formed in the tail of the yarn without me noticing, resulting in my tugging on the yarn a little, resulting in my pulling all but about three stitches off the needles. I couldn't really figure out where I was or which stitches went with which needle, so I just made sure I went through every stitch at least once and the toe was closed up sufficiently. Had the sock not been intended to be felted, I would have frogged and redone the toe, but fortunately felting hides many flaws. Honestly, now you can't tell the difference.

So that's another item to cross off the list. I also finished the first of my dad's socks last night, and put another two tiers on Lady Eleanor. And the weekend is coming!

While reliability and predictability are nice and keep me sane, you know what really makes me happy? SURPRISES! Take a look at what was waiting for me when I got home tonight (and I didn't even see it at first because it was so dark and rainy and miserable):

My Sockret Pal strikes again! I don't know who she is, but I want her to be my new best friend. This gal clearly has been paying attention to me and selected swag that was so me. See that gorgeous yarn on the right? The color is brighter and more luminous in person, a gorgeous glowing teal that my pal dyed just for me. She calls this colorway Peacock Feather, because it made her think of the deep shimmery teal shades in peacocks' plumes. In her note (which was on top of all the goodies, so I read it before peeking under the tissue paper), she casually mentioned that she thought the yarn would be good for making myself a Shetland Triangle from Wrap Style, which I'd said in my questionnaire way back in September was a pattern I was dying to knit. I swear, I wasn't fishing -- but what you do you think was underneath the yarn?! All I can say is, it's a good thing J isn't home, because when I saw the book I just screamed with glee; had he been home, he would've thought I'd cut off my finger or something. There was also a great little zippered case inside -- that my pal SEWED HERSELF (she's clearly craftier than I) -- that was filled with even more goodies: locking stitch markers, a blue(!) Chibi (how did you know that my tapestry needles just disappeared, Sockret Pal?), a chic girly address book, and the most adorable gray sheep tape measure!

Sockret Pal, thank you so, SO much! You clearly put a lot of thought and time into putting this package together and I love everything in it! I'm just so impressed by your sewing skills -- I can't believe you even found matching teal thread! It will make a great bag for me to store all my notions, which I've desperately needed as I keep loosing things (just ask the fiance about the attack of hysterics I had when I couldn't find my thread scissors). As soon as I finish up the holiday knitting, the first thing I am going to cast on for is a Peacock Shetland Triangle!

The yarn I used is a hand dyed yarn from Zen Yarn Garden. If you look at the post before that one I think I link to the site. Anyway, it was the only self striping yarn she ever did because it was too much work. :)